The Rendon Group Snapshot Report – 07 December 2015

by TRG Alerts Admin on December 14, 2015

The Rendon Group

(07DEC15)

Each week, the Rendon Group’s media analysts will focus on a different continent and a different issue affecting that continent. As always, we remain available to answer any questions you may have and to provide additional information upon request. For more information regarding The Rendon Group’s products and services, please contact us at Alert@Rendon.com or +1-202-745-4900.

Burkina Faso’s presidential elections after upheaval

A street vendor sells newspapers in Ouagadougou on 03DEC following the election of Roch Marc Kabore to the presidency. Photograph: Issouf Sanogo/AFP/Getty Image

This week’s snapshot focuses on Burkina Faso’s presidential elections. In the past year, Burkina Faso has confronted challenges on the road to democracy after years of dictatorship. In September, military officers loyal to their former president staged a coup, which was aborted after protests and junior officers took to the streets. The elections were scheduled for 11OCT, but ended up delayed until 29NOV. One year earlier, in October 2014, protesters angry at plans to allow Burkina Faso’s President Blaise Compaore to extend his 27-year-rule set fire to parliament, city hall, and party headquarters.

01DEC: The electoral commission released official results declaring Kabore the winner of presidential elections. (AFP)

01DEC: In a speech to the nation, Kabore promised a “better tomorrow” to the citizens of Burkina Faso, pledging to fight youth unemployment, improve education, and modernize the healthcare system. (AFP)

02DEC: President-elect Kabore’s party lead legislative elections but did not have enough support to win an outright majority. (AFP)

02DEC: Security sources revealed that they detained five suspected terrorists before the elections (Xinhua)

04DEC: President-elect Kabore promised to rewrite the country’s constiution to usher in a “Fifth Republic”and limit the power of the presidency. (Xinhua)

06DEC: Burkina Faso’s military tribunal charged Gen. Gilbert Diendere — who briefly took power in a failed September coup — with complicity in the assassination of the West African nation’s former revolutionary leader in 1987. (AP)

Sample of Twitter handles tweeting about the elections in Burkina Faso

Ouagadougou, Dec 1, 2015 (AFP) – Roch Marc Kabore became Burkina Faso’s first democratically elected leader in nearly four decades on Tuesday, vowing a brighter future for the western African country after a year of political turmoil and unrest.

Kabore won 53.49 percent of ballots cast in Sunday’s election, winning victory in the first round of a vote aimed at restoring stability after the popular revolt that toppled longtime leader Blaise Compaore in October 2014.

Ouagadougou, Dec 2, 2015 (AFP) – The party of Burkina Faso’s president-elect Roch Marc Christian Kabore came first in the west African country’s parliamentary vote but fell short of winning an absolute majority, according to official results announced Wednesday by the electoral commission.

After securing 55 seats out of 127, Kabore’s Movement of the People of Progress (MPP) must now seek coalition partners in order to form a government.

OUAGADOUGOU, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) — Sunday’s presidential and legislative elections in Burkina Faso were faced with numerous logistical challenges such as shortage of voting materials, slow entry of voters as well as delayed opening of the polling stations.

In Karpaala polling station in the east of the capital Ouagadougou, voting began at 8 a.m. despite the polling station being opened at 6 a.m, said Herve Ouedraogo, a civil society election observer.